Best Iris Murdoch Novels Novels & Stories

Let’s not forget the sheer pleasure of her prose. Even when I’m lost in a philosophical thicket, a sentence will stop me cold with its beauty or precision. 'The Sea, The Sea' is full of them—descriptions of the sea light, memories of the theatre, moments of painful self-awareness. If you read for language, for sentences that make you sigh, start with that one. You can float on the music of her writing even when the plot is slow or the narrator is frustrating. The prose itself is the companion and the reward.

The sheer number of characters in her later books can be daunting. 'The Book and the Brotherhood' has a huge cast. Starting with something like 'The Italian Girl', which focuses on a smaller family unit, can train you to follow her web of relationships before tackling the grand social canvases of the late period. It's about building your 'Murdoch muscle'.

I think pairing her novels with the movies or TV adaptations can be a fun, non-linear order. Watch the film of 'The Sea, The Sea' (with Judi Dench!) after you read it. See 'A Severed Head' (the play or the film adaptation) to highlight its farcical elements. There's a decent TV version of 'The Bell' too.

Seeing how others interpret her dense, internal prose can clarify themes or characters you might have missed. It also breaks up the reading if you find her style demanding. Have a Murdoch media weekend: read the book, then watch the adaptation, then discuss the differences. It turns it into a project.

This approach is less about the 'right' order and more about immersive, multimedia exploration. It makes her work feel alive and continually reinterpreted.